The present invention relates to an air conditioning apparatus employing a slide-type air mix door, and more particularly to an air conditioning apparatus for an automotive vehicle which apparatus employs a slide door for controlling a ratio between quantities of warm air and cool air.
Various air conditioning apparatuses have been proposed and in practical use in order to improve easiness of installation to a smaller space of an automotive vehicles. A so-called vertical type unit is one of compact types and is arranged such that a cooler unit and a heater unit are integrally formed. Further, a slide-type air mix door is installed between the cooler unit and the heater unit in order to further improve compactness of the air conditioning apparatus.
However, this conventional compact air conditioning apparatus has been produced by assembling elements for a mix door mechanism into a unit case one by one during assembling operations of various mode doors. Further, it is necessary to install a driving device for sliding the mix door after the mix door mechanism is installed in the unit case. This also increases steps for assembling the air conditioning apparatus.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved air conditioning apparatus which employs a slide-type mix door assembly to largely improve operational easiness during a production process thereof and decreases the production cost of the air conditioning apparatus.
An aspect of the present invention resides in an air conditioning apparatus which is for an automotive and comprises a case, a heater core installed in the case and a mix door assembly. The mix door assembly is detachably installed in the case through an opening formed at a side wall of the case. The mix door assembly varies a ratio of a quantity of air passing through the heater core and a quantity of air bypassing the heater core. The mix door assembly is constituted by a housing, a mix door and a slide mechanism. The slide mechanism receives a rotational force and slides the mix door according to the received rotational force to vary the ratio.
Another aspect of the present invention resides in a mix door assembly detachably installed in a case of an air conditioning apparatus for an automotive vehicle. The mix door assembly comprises a housing, a door and a slide mechanism. The housing has an opening which generally corresponds to a cross section of an air conditioning passage defined in the case. The door is installed in the housing and partly closes the opening. The door slides in the housing to change a closed portion of the opening. The slide mechanism comprises a rack integrally formed on a surface of said door and a pinion rotatably supported to the side plates. The pinion is engaged with the rack, receives a rotational force and slides the door according to the received rotational force.